


Florid Flows The Dream

by raendown



Series: Commission Work [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 19:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17453294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Sequel to Chapter 137 of theSoulmate Story CollectionOlder now, Minato and Kakashi have been meeting in their dreams every night for twenty years. After so long together there's only one thing between them they've never addressed. Minato doesn't want to think about how long it would have taken them to talk about it if not for one perfectly innocent misunderstanding.





	Florid Flows The Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Miramise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miramise/gifts).



Minato was waving goodbye to Kushina when he spotted the tuft of silver hair not quite out of sight over the crest of his roof. With a smile he turned and pushed a little chakra in to his jump, bringing him up on to the edge of warm tiles where he could peek over the roof to see the back of Kakashi’s head. He took particular note of the paw prints crisscrossing underneath his feet despite the current lack of any dogs capable of getting up here. It seemed his soulmate had given himself company while he waited.

He opened his mouth to greet the other but Kakashi beat him to it at the last second.

“Did you two have fun on your date?” he asked, voice quiet enough that the wind almost blew it away. Minato cocked his head to one side with a bemused look.

“It wasn’t a date.”

Kakashi shrugged. The motion was perfunctory and when his shoulders fell back in to place Minato could see that he was holding a lot of tension there. In fact, despite the casual way he lounged on the terracotta as though nothing were amiss, every line in his body was tight with a tension Minato couldn’t understand. When they had seen each other earlier that day there had been nothing wrong other than perhaps the lingering headaches they were both suffering from celebrating Kakashi’s twentieth birthday with perhaps too much sake.

Shuffling forward until he was level with the younger man, Minato carefully lowered himself until he had settled on the tiles as well. His roof always had a great view of the sunset but something told him that the scenery was not why Kakashi was hanging around up here.

“Didn’t she ask you out to dinner?”

“Well, kind of. Not really. She asked me to _meet her_ for dinner but that’s not the same thing.” Minato frowned, leaning over until their arms brushed together. “Kakashi, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He would have been much more convincing if not for the way his shoulders kept hunching tighter and tighter around himself.

“Are you sure? Because you seem…off. You know you can talk to me, yeah?”

The vague feeling that something might be wrong was proven right a moment later, settling firmly in to worry when Minato saw Kakashi turn away from him for the first time in a very long time. When they were younger there had been a period in Kakashi’s life when it seemed everything was doomed to go wrong, the people he loved dropping around him like flies, and his first instinct had been to pull in to himself in the hope that it would hurt less when he lost Minato too.

It had taken Minato several weeks to get it through the idiot’s thick skull that he wasn’t going anywhere. He wasn’t going to die and he certainly wasn’t going to leave. Not even his duties as the Hokage could keep him busy enough that he forgot to make time for his favorite person. Working their way through those hurts together had brought them closer than ever before and they had been all but attached at the hip ever since.

Seeing Kakashi turn away from him again now stung more than he expected. Unsure what he might have done wrong, it hurt to think Kakashi might not trust him to stick around – especially considering the feelings he had been thinking on more and more lately, feelings he hadn’t quite figured out how to bring up in conversation.

“Maybe I should…go find my own dinner,” Kakashi mumbled finally. “Goodnight, Minato.” He was gone a moment later, hopping down without waiting for a reply.

Finding himself suddenly alone and scratching vigorously at the back of his head with bewilderment, Minato gave some thought to watching the sunset by himself, a lonely thought since they usually sat together around this time and traded gossip about what they had both done that day. He discarded the idea quickly. Without Kakashi here at his side the very notion seemed empty and pointless, the sunset pale and colorless. He was frowning as he dropped down on to the front porch and let himself inside. It looked like tonight was going to be an early night for him, dinner and then bed right after with no staying up to read the book waiting on his nightstand.

He wanted to fall asleep as soon as possible. As much as he knew Kakashi’s patterns and he knew the man always stayed awake for as long as possible when he was upset, unable to fall asleep with his mind twisting itself in to unnecessary knots, that didn’t matter. Minato had always tried to make sure he fell asleep first so he could be there to greet his soulmate in the one place they could both be their whole selves.

Well, the one place where they should have been able to be their whole selves. He himself was guilty of keeping secrets; he was hardly in a position judge if it ever turned out the other man was doing the same.

Sleep came quickly once he laid his head down and calmed his chakra. It was a skill he had picked up from Kakashi, ironically, and they had both used it countless times to catch a bit of shuteye in the middle of long missions when there was little time for rest. It served him well now, sending him down in to familiar darkness within minutes. When his eyes opened again he was standing on the shore of an endless lake with his toes buried in soft white sand that never clung to skin or clothing. This world was what they made of it.

They had made paradise from a warrior’s eye. Even if it were possible for others to enter this world he was sure no civilian could possibly find rest here. This place was tailored to them specifically, empty of the many traumas that came with the shinobi lifestyle and filled instead with the few things that brought them comfort, influenced occasionally by mood or a new desire.

Although he had known that he would have to wait, Minato still found the empty hours that followed nearly unbearable. Just thinking about Kakashi being upset with him for some reason ate at his insides until he couldn’t keep still. Worry sent him wandering along the shore until he turned aside for a change of scenery and ambled through the range of mountains they had lifted so Kakashi could feel the pure air on his face and know that there were no walls around him for miles and miles. Eventually he came to rest in a field of wheat dancing in a gentle wind that never faltered, running his fingers over through the grain and letting the beards tickle his skin. This field had been Minato’s idea, a terrible joke on his partner’s name.

He was still there when Kakashi fell asleep at last to join him here in their private dreamscape. One moment he was alone with his thoughts and the next his other half stood at the edge of the field with a smudge of darkness looming over him, not quite a storm cloud but certainly not a clear blue sky.

“In case you were wondering,” he grumbled when Minato hurried over, “chocolate covered coffee beans are delicious but not enough to keep me awake all night.”

“Please tell me what’s upset you – and don’t say nothing.” With one stern finger he pointed up at the darkness gathered around Kakashi’s head, watching with some exasperation as the younger man waved it away like smoke. It took a few minutes of Minato waiting with both hands on his hips before finally he offered something.

“You went on a date with her.”

That hadn’t been at all what he was expecting. Minato scratched his head. “Who? I haven’t gone on any dates.”

“Kushina,” Kakashi ground out from between his teeth.

“I told you, it wasn’t like that! She wanted to meet me for dinner because she had something important to talk about and she always bribes people with food when she needs help. Honestly I think her stomach runs her head; she seems to think the whole world is as obsessed with ramen as she is.”

Rather than look assured Kakashi only hunched further in to himself. “Oh. So…it wasn’t like…a romantic thing?”

“Not in the slightest. I would never – no.” Minato coughed in to his hand and cursed his stupid mouth for almost spitting out that he would never want anyone else the way he already wanted Kakashi. He knew there was no chance he hadn’t been super obvious about it but he still cringed when he felt a sharp stare boring in to him, a nervous titter escaping as he made a half-hearted attempt to deflect. “Well, glad we got that cleared up! So what did you do today? Did Gai ever find you for that rock throwing contest like he said he would?”

“Wait, go back a second. You would never what? Go out with her? Or go out with anyone? Is she just, like, not your type or something?”

“Um…” Uncomfortable, Minato chewed on his bottom lip and tried to figure out how to respond, searching Kakashi’s face for guidance until it finally hit him. He knew exactly why his soulmate was so upset. “Are you…jealous?”

The way Kakashi reeled back told him everything he needed to know, even without the blush that exploded over top of that ridiculous mask he never went without.

“Oh my god you are jealous!”

“Shut up!”

“But why?”

“Why do you think!? Oh my god, stop being embarrassing or I swear I’ll find a way to wake myself up.”

Minato laughed, feeling lighter than air, and lunged forward before Kakashi could escape to pull him in to a tight embrace. “That wasn’t very clear, sorry. I meant that you have no reason to be jealous. When I said I would never I was trying to say…never with anyone but you.”

He just barely managed to move his head in time to avoid a rapid collision when Kakashi jerked his own up to stare, wide eyed and disbelieving in a way that was somehow both comical and heartbreaking.

“You–? Me? Really?”

“I mean, we _are_ soulmates. Is it so surprising?”

“Well you, uh, never said anything about this before.” Kakashi puffed out one cheek with embarrassment.

Minato lifted his chin to press their foreheads together across that single inch difference in their heights. “Oh, well excuse me. Are you really going to stand there and accuse me of doing the exact same thing you were doing? If you can fall in love and not say anything then so can I.”

He would have tried for a smug look if he weren’t flying so high on the incredible relief of knowing that Kakashi felt the same as him, that his secret didn’t have to stay secret anymore. Between the two of them they had both read enough terrible romances to recognize this moment for what it was and Minato knew damn well that he _should_ be going in for that first big romantic kiss. Too full of emotions, his body twitched until he could stand it no longer and he was moving before he could think better of it.

The sound that slipped out of Kakashi when Minato lifted him off his feet in an over-enthusiastic bear hug was one neither of them had proper words for. It was probably meant to be some sort of protest, words choked off at the sudden movement, not quite a gurgle and too close to articulate to be called a groan. Minato couldn’t help himself; he laughed so hard that his arms loosened and Kakashi got his wish, gently dropping back down on to his own two feet.

“You are _terrible_ at romance, I will have you know,” he accused.

“Well,” Minato cupped his soulmate’s cheek and peeled away that one last barrier between them. “I would hate to leave you with such a terrible misconception. Let’s see if I can change your mind, hm?”

Knowing Kakashi the way he did, Minato was sure that later he would be facing a whole lot of teasing for this, keeping the attention on him so neither of them would have the time to stop and think about how poorly Kakashi himself had also handled the situation. He didn’t mind, really. Not when they both groaned in to their first kiss, too long in coming, hands pulling at clothing to keep them close while the breeze tugged at their hair and set them both giggling over how badly the tickling sensation ruined the moment.

Around them the sky that had darkened to night with Kakashi’s mood now brightened until it was something comparable to high noon. It was appropriate, Minato thought, that their first kiss be here in the place that was only theirs.

He couldn’t wait for morning so he could lay claim again once they woke up, so he could show Kakashi that he would love him in any world – in their dreams, in this life, and in the next.   


End file.
